'Fog' computing harnesses personal devices to speed wireless networks

As everyday items from cars to watches increasingly use computers and communications to operate, the demand on networks that connect devices is expected to balloon. In response, engineers are working to harness the devices’ own computing, sensing and storage power to form networks that meet most of the demand. These networks have been dubbed “fog computing,” a name that emphasizes their local, diffuse nature as opposed to more distant “cloud computing.” Now, researchers at Princeton University’s Edge Lab are leading a global effort, with scientists and business leaders at ARM, Cisco, Dell, Intel and Microsoft, to develop the architecture and tools for using these new fog networks.